Ask your average salesperson the following question: Are there certain questions you find yourself answering on every single sales call?
Chances are, this will be met by a laugh or an eye-roll or a sigh of despair.
Yes, salespeople field the same questions from customer after customer after customer.
Assignment selling can help change all that.
Assignment selling is the act of using content during the sales process to address major objections and questions your buyers have — often before they come up during a meeting.
The result?
More productive sales conversations
Better-prepared buyers
Higher close rates
The idea was developed by Marcus Sheridan more than a decade ago when he was running his swimming pool company, River Pools and Spas.
Marcus was writing a lot of marketing content for his website that was bringing in tons of traffic and a good number of leads. He decided to dig through the data to see what conclusions he could draw about his customers.
Marcus realized he had two very different groups of people requesting sales calls — and he was seeing dramatically different close rates depending on which camp someone came from.
In short, the more well-informed the buyer is, the more likely that buyer will close.
Marcus began deliberately sending prospects educational articles and videos before meetings to answer questions in advance. This became the foundation of Assignment Selling.
Marcus has taught salespeople all around the world to use content to get questions out of the way ahead of time.
So, rather than answering the question when it comes up in a meeting, a salesperson can say, “I know you’re likely going to have questions about X. I’m going to send you some resources that explain it thoroughly so you’ll feel more well-informed going into our next meeting.”
By sending content ahead of time, salespeople:
Build trust by showing transparency
Save time during meetings
Empower buyers to make informed decisions
Assignment Selling works because it aligns with buyer psychology. Today’s customers want:
Honest answers to their biggest questions
Control over their research process
Confidence that they’re making the right choice
When sales teams provide those answers up front, prospects feel respected rather than sold to, which leads to stronger relationships between the prospect and the company.
If you’re wondering, “How do I get my sales team to start using Assignment Selling?” — the answer is simple: start small, start today.
Identify one common buyer question. Create (or repurpose) a helpful resource that answers it. Send it to your next prospect before the meeting. Then, watch how the conversation changes.
At IMPACT, we’ve trained hundreds of companies on Assignment Selling, and we’d love to help you do the same. Talk to our team to learn how to implement Assignment Selling and transform your sales process.
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